Here we discuss sex and politics, loudly, no apologies hence "screeds" and "attitude."

2/10/2016

awful hillary loses

'deadline' reports:Bernie Sanders' overwhelming victory over Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary tonight has significant Hollywood Democrats feeling very shaky and advocating Joe Biden
jump into the race for the White House. "He doesn't have deep ties in
town," an industry power player said of the Vice President this
evening, comparing him to both the ex-NY senator and the Vermont
senator.

hillary's a loser.

a lemon.

russ feingold should have run.

a bunch of other democrats should have tried for the nomination.

as the party panics, there's a push for joe.

will he toss his hat in?

maybe.

at this point, it kind of feels like he has to in order to serve the people.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, Canada
announces when they'll leave Barack's bombing campaign, Ramadi is
finally liberated (all these weeks after it was first proclaimed
liberated), the voters of New Hampshire overwhelming choose Bernie over
Hillary, and much more.

Today, the US government continued its bombing of Iraq in US President
Barack Obama's efforts to bring peace to Iraq. The US Defense Dept
claimed/bragged/announced:

Strikes in IraqCoalition forces used rocket artillery and attack, fighter, and
remotely piloted aircraft to conduct 18 strikes in Iraq, coordinated
with and in support of Iraq’s government:-- Near Baghdadi, seven strikes struck two separate ISIL
tactical units and three ISIL staging areas, denied ISIL access to
terrain, and destroyed two ISIL rockets, an ISIL weapons cache, an ISIL
front-end loader, an ISIL heavy machine gun, and an ISIL vehicle.-- Near Huwayjah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.-- Near Fallujah, a strike destroyed an ISIL-used bridge.-- Near Mosul, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and
destroyed five ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL mortar tube, and an ISIL
vehicle.-- Near Qayyarah, two strikes struck an ISIL logistics facility and destroyed four ISIL fighting positions.-- Near Ramadi, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical
units, denied ISIL access to terrain, and destroyed three ISIL fighting
positions, an ISIL staging area, and two ISIL boats.-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike destroyed two ISIL fighting positions.-- Near Tal Afar, a strike suppressed an ISIL rocket position.Additionally, a strike in Iraq from Feb. 7 was not included on the Feb. 8 strike release:-- Near Ramadi, a strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and
destroyed three ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL heavy machine gun, and
an ISIL boat.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic
events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a
single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a
single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle
is a strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons
against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for
example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or
impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not
report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number
of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual
munition impact points against a target.

Barack just keeps bombing.

Nothing but bombing.

Today, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared, "It is important
to understand that while airstrike operations can be very useful to
achieve short-term military and territorial gains, they do not on their
own achieve long-term stability for local communities."

Trudeau was quoted by Susana Mas (CBC News) who reports
that he has announced February 22nd as the day "Canada will cease all
coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria."

Meanwhile, Barack's been dropping bombs on Iraq in the latest wave of
the never ending Iraq War -- and Barack's been doing that since August
2014.

If you're not getting what a failure Barack's plan or 'plan' has been,
today the US State Dept presented the USAID request for fiscal year
2017.

And?

They trumpeted the following:

Strengthen reforms in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with
$1.45 billion to sustain gains made in these strategically important
countries, from improving the performance and legitimacy of the Afghan
government to promoting a stable, secure and prosperous Pakistan that
counters violent extremism. The budget will also support work to
continue strengthening each country’s economy, and advance ambitious
reforms in a variety of sectors, including energy, agriculture,
education and health.

Afghanistan and Pakistan?

Where's Iraq?

There are no reforms to strengthen in Iraq.

Sure, in June 2014, Barack declared the only solution to Iraq's various
crises was a political solution. But State's pretended it's the Defense
Dept and John Kerry, Secretary of State, has made a spectacle of
himself on the international stage and is little more than a laughable
stooge these days.

As we've noted before, he's gone around pressing foreign governments to
send troops into Iraq instead of working on diplomacy and fostering a
better government in Iraq.

His efforts with other countries?

They're a bit of bust.

And that's why Barack's contemplating putting even more US "boots on the ground."

And it's why, at NEW ZEALAND's SCOOP, Gordon Campbell notes the reality of what the US is attempting to force others into doing:Foreign
news services are being more forthcoming about what those
“next 12 months” will entail – essentially, the
defence ministers will be under US pressure to increase
their “training” role preparatory to an assault on the city of
Mosul in northern Iraq:US officials – who have
been pushing Iraq to launch an assault on Mosul following
recent successes including the recapture of the city of
Ramadi – have repeatedly highlighted the need to increase
the number of Western trainers in Iraq. The question is
expected to be taken up during a February 11 meeting of
coalition defence ministers.

A failure. That's what Barack's 'plan' has been. THE NATIONAL NEWSPAPER reports today that Ramadi and its surrounding areas are finally liberated. Susannah George (ASSOCIATED PRESS) words it this way, "Iraqi government forces have regained full control of Ramadi after
pushing Islamic State group fighters out of the city's outskirts,
according to Iraqi security forces and the U.S.-led coalition. The
announcement, more than a month after Ramadi was first declared
liberated in December, underscores the slow nature of Iraqi ground
operations despite heavy backing from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes."

"Ramadi is liberated, or it is if you change the meaning and definition
of liberated, even in congratulations Secretary of State John Kerry
notes that Ramadi is not liberated, none of the bombings address the
root causes of the Islamic State, and much more." That's from the December 28, 2015 snapshot -- as is the following:

Ramadi, they say, is liberated.As we noted this morning,
any announcement of Ramadi being liberated should have come from Prime
Minister Haider al-Abadi. Instead, it came from the military
underscoring how precarious Haider's position actually is. (It was only
weeks ago that US senators, in a public hearing, were wondering how
much longer Haider would be able to hold on.)Six hours after the military announced 'liberation,' someone thought to toss Haider before the cameras.Stephen Kalin and Maher Chmaytelli (REUTERS) report that he declared Ramadi liberated and insisted they would be tackling Mosul in the near future.

That was December, this is February. Not only is Ramadi only now
liberated but Mosul's still not tackled. Guess "near future" means
something other than "near future."

Barack's 'plan' has only focused on bombing the Islamic State (sometimes
hitting them, sometimes hitting civilians) and on (yet again) training
Iraqi forces. Alice Fordham (NPR) points out, "But ISIS is just one of many groups trying to carve out power for itself
in a country where the central government is looking ever weaker."

The city of Ramadi in central Iraq was captured by so-called Islamic
State (IS) in May last year. It was a city of more than one million,
mostly Sunni, people. Last month, most of the city was recaptured by the
Iraqi military, with the assistance of Shi’ia militias, funded and led
by commanders from the Iranian Quds Force, a listed terrorist
organisation.

Nine months under the control of [the Islamic State] was devastating enough for
Ramadi but the final onslaught during the battle for its recapture has
seen virtually every building in the city destroyed; only a handful of
women, children and elderly men remain. Some estimates state that the
population numbers less than 1,000. The ruthless Shi’ia militias have
waged a genocidal campaign against the Sunni population, torturing,
burning and butchering at will. Thousands of civilians have been killed.
The men of Ramadi between the ages of 14 and 70 have simply
disappeared. Some say they are being held in secret prisons; others
claim they have been murdered.

Shocking reports have emerged of the organised slaughter and execution
of Sunni citizens in Diyala Province and the blowing up of Sunni
mosques in the town of Meqhdadiya. Regrettably, the government of Iraq
and the US administration have been silent in the face of these
atrocities perpetrated by the militias affiliated to Iran who operate
under the leadership of Hadi al-Ameri, commander of the terrorist-listed
Badr Organisation. Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has faced
a humiliating climb-down over his efforts to secure a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s economy was crumbling under the combined weight of international
sanctions and the collapsing oil price, forcing it to seek a deal with
the West. In a bid to buttress his beleaguered regime, Khamenei is
trying to extend Iran’s influence in the Middle East. His efforts to
shore up the gore-encrusted regime of Bashar al-Assad have fuelled the
civil war in Syria for the past five years, creating the perfect
environment for IS to exploit and expand. Khamenei, in turn, uses IS as
his excuse to provide money, men and material to bolster the
scorched-earth campaign by the Shi’ia militias in neighbouring Iraq.
Western silence on this carnage has simply contributed to the spiralling
sectarian war that threatens to tear Iraq apart.

It's a shame nothing's been done to address issues like that.

It's more than a shame, it's a crime -- and falls under the legal definition of War Crimes.

Moving over to one specific War Criminal, Hillary Clinton.

Cranky Clinton is yet again having trouble sealing the deal when it
comes to garnering the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

This go round, she's competing against Senator Bernie Sanders.

Today, they faced off in the first primary the United States holds: New Hampshire.

Just as notable, New Hampshire Democratic voters revealed a party
that appears to have become more left-leaning than ever. According to
the New York Times
, a full “two-thirds of voters in the Democratic primary said that they
are liberal, up from 56 percent who said the same in 2008, the last
time there was a contested Democratic primary.” Clinton tried to appeal
to more centrist Democrats by, for instance, dismissing Sanders’ push for a single-payer Medicare-for-all health care system, but two-thirds of the increasingly liberal Democratic electorate told exit pollsters that they support such a system.Sanders’ laser-like focus on populist economics and confrontational
anti-Wall Street themes resonated with Democratic voters who said the top two issues
they were concerned about were inequality and the state of the economy —
a shift by a party that during Bill Clinton's administration often
elected more corporate-friendly candidates who downplayed inequality and
promoted a so-called “third way” of cooperation with the financial
sector.